My name is Twyla Rayne. I am an Apache Indian from the Mescalero Reservation. Otero Mesa is more than just a place to me. Itâ€™s a sanctuary, itâ€™s a place of peace, understanding, reliability, not only for me, but animals of all sorts, as far as spirits go. I felt spiritually reborn; I am concerned for its spiritual well-being....

By Rocky Kistner, Huffpost GREEN May 18, 2012 An essential mineral ingredient used in a variety of electronics from cell phones to smart bombs could be a death knell for a pristine part of a wild New Mexico desert grassland coveted by environmentalistsâ€”and considered sacred to Native Americans. That ingredientâ€”rare earth elementsâ€”is at the heart of a recent...

By Styve Homnick, For the Alamogordo Daily News June 12, 2012 In 1906, George and Alice Bent wound up in a town that would later bear their last name. They bought the copper mine and employed about 34 men and one woman. They opened a post office and grocery store, and it's been Bent ever since. The opinions...

By Dr. Hildy Reiser, For the Alamogordo Daily News October 24, 2012 I have been a resident of Otero County for 18 1/2 years, an avid native plants gardener for over 17 1/2 years, and a wildlife ecologist and natural resources professional for more than 30 years. I have been to many beautiful places in the U.S. and...

By Pete Eidenbach, For the Alamogordo Daily News September 11, 2012 When our ancestors first explored Otero Mesa 10 millennia or more ago, the mesa was occupied by a juniper/oak woodland alternating with plains grassland, far different from today's Chihuahuan Desert grassland and scrub. Instead of today's cattle, the mesa was populated by some formidable wildlife. During...

Alamogordo Daily News October 2, 2012 By Janice Merino As I looked out upon the beautiful mesa, I imagined my ancestors running over the grasslands. The Chiricahua were nomadic by nature and would travel by foot from place to place, over hundreds of miles, following their food source through the seasons. My soul whispered, "I love this...

By Dr. C. Richard Tinguely, For the Alamogordo Daily News May 29, 2012 One Wednesday afternoon in 1961, I discovered Otero Mesa -- although at the time I didn't even know its name. During this time I had a busy dental practice in El Paso. To unwind from the stress, I jumped into my little Piper aircraft and...

In July 2011, the Coalition for Otero Mesa developed the following report, which details point-by-point how the campaign to save this wild and beautiful grassland fits perfectly into the Obama Administrationâ€™s Americaâ€™s Great Outdoors Initiative. In June of 2010, over 400 supporters of protecting Otero Mesa turned out to an administration listening session in Albuquerque. Since that time there have...

Phil Taylor and Manuel Quinones, E&E reporters June 30, 2011 Tribal and environmental leaders lobbied the Obama administration this week to designate a national monument on more than a million acres in southern New Mexico, a sacred land to some that contains one of the United States' most intact and ecologically diverse desert grasslands. Members of the Mescalero...

POLITICS: Babbitt blames White House â€˜munchkinsâ€™ for bartering away public lands (06/08/2011) Phil Taylor, E&E reporter Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt today attacked the White House for failing to stand up to what he warned is an all-out congressional assault on public lands and urged the Obama administration to use its executive powers to protect...

Albuquerque Journal Sun, Jun 5, 2011 By Ted Rodriguez, Alfred LaPaz, Larry Shay, Houston Murphy, and Styve Homnick / Mescalero Apache Advocates For Otero Mesa National Monument Until a few months ago only a handful of the curious knew the importance of Otero Mesa to the Apache. Otero Mesa is one of the most sacred of places, if...